Annealing apparatus



Get. 17, 1939.

J. COOK ANNEALING APPARATUS Filed July 12, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 I lllllllll I l Lml nu w u INVENTOR. J 6

ATTORNEY PATET OFFICE ANNEALIN APPARATUS John Cook, Ridgewood, N. J., assignor to Cornish Wire Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application July 12, 1938, Serial No. 218,811

- 3 Claims.

This invention relates to metal annealing and more particularly to an apparatus for annealing a moving wire by passing an electric current a through said wire and preventing discoloration 5 of. the heated portion of said wire by maintaining an atmosphere of steam around it.

The present invention is an improvement over the invention disclosed in a prior application filed by me under date of November 23, 1937, bearing Serial Number 176,033, entitled Methods of and apparatus for annealing moving wire.

One object of the present invention is to provide an open-ended insulating tube for surrounding the moving wire while being annealed, the

lower portion of said tube containing water, and being so arranged that the lengths of the portion of the wire heated by the current and the portion cooled by the water will be reduced to a minimum, thereby insuring that the annealing appag ratus will operate at maximum efiiciency.

A further object of the invention is to provide an open ended tube of the above nature containing a quiescent body of water, which is adapted to be flashed into steam by the heat of. the wire 5 and also a downwardly flowing body of water surrounding the wire which serves to cool it.

A further object is to provide a tube of the above nature which is especially adapted for use with relatively fine wire, having insumcient heat to quickly flash water into steam, said tube being,

therefore, provided with an auxiliary steam sup- Ply. A further object is to provide a tube of the above nature in which the body of water therein i is maintained at a constant level to produce uniform annealing conditions.

Afurther object is to provide a tube of the above nature consisting of a pair of nested pipes,

each of which has a longitudinal slot, which slots are adapted to be rotated into alignment to permit the horizontal insertion of the wire, said slots being adapted to be rotated out of alignment so as .to seal the sides of said tube.

With these and other objects in view, there have been illustrated on the accompanying drawings two forms in which the invention may be conveniently embodied in practice.

My invention is illustrated. by means of the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view of one form 0 apparatus embodying the features of the invention; I

Fig. 2 is a similar diagrammatic view of a modified form of apparatus having an auxiliary cooling tube;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a modified form of protective and cooling tube for use with the highly heated moving wire;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of another modified form of tube, which is provided with an auxilz iary steam supply;

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of a still further modified form of tubeconstructed of two nested slotted pipes, the slots of which are adapted to be aligned to permit the insertion of the wire from the side;

Fig. 6 is a top plan view of the same;

Fig. 7 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line 7-1 of Fig. 5, looking downwardly;

Fig. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view of another modified form of tube comprising a pair of nested slotted pipes and being provided with an auxiliary steam supply branch pipe.

Fig. 9 is a top plan view of the same;

Fig. 10 is a transverse sectional view of the same, taken on the line iii-ill of Fig. 8, looking downwardly.

Referring now to the drawings in which like reference characters denote corresponding parts, the letter A indicates the final capstan of a wiredrawing machine, around which passes a moving wire B. Electric current is introduced" into the moving strand,

preferably by means of an electric conductor C, which makes contact with the capstan A, as by a brush. The wire B preferably extends around an elevated sheave D, from which .it passes downwardly and enters the open-ended insulating protective tube E, the lower end of which projects below the level H of a body of water G contained in the tank I. i Y

Also contained in the tank I is a lower sheave J, and through which the current passes out of the wire by means of a brush connected to a suitable conductor K leading to the line. 40

After the wire passes around the submerged sheave J, it moves upwardly out of the tank and passes around an elevated pulley orsheave L,

below which is located a wiper M, which acts to remove surplus water which is drawn up by the wire from the tank I. By means of this construction, a small stream of water is caused to fiow continuously. down along the upwardly moving wire-for cooling it and at the same time protecting it from the atmosphere.

One advantage of the present invention is that the length of the tube which issubmerged may be reduced to a minimum. Also, the (113- tance between the lower sheave J and the water level H is minimized so that the downwardly m'oving portion of the wire, being both heated by the electric current and cooled by the water, is made quite short. The efiiciency of the annealing apparatus, as far as the consumption of current is concerned, is therefore maintained at a high level.

In the modified form of the invention shown in Fig. 2, the construction differs from that of the first form illustrated in Fig. 1, in that a pump N is provided for forcibly circulating a small amount of cooling water down through a tube 0, which surrounds the wire, and depends below the level H of the water G in the tank I. This construction positively prevents air from reaching the wire until it has been .cooled below the discoloration temperature.

In Figs. 3-8, various modifications of the tube E are shown which permit the level of the liquid in the tank I to be lowered below the lower contact pulley J, thereby resulting in a saving of the power required to drive a submerged pulley.

Modification of Fig. 3

In the modification shown in Fig. 3, the annealing tube P is preferably formed of Bakelite or similar molded composition, and has a restricted upper central passage Q which communicates with an enlarged central chamber R. extending to the lower end of the tube, which is preferably closed by a plug S having a beveled restricted opening T extending therethrough.

Adjacent the juncture between the upper restricted passage Q and the enlarged lower chamber R, provision is made of a horizontal water inlet pipe U, having an upwardly extending overflow pipe V,-the arrangement being such that the lower chamber R is constantly maintained full of water, the level W of which extends up into the restricted passage Q and tube P.

In the operation of the annealing tube shown in Fig. 3, when the highly heated wire (not shown), moves down through the small upper passage Q, it strikes the quiescent body of water at W and flashes the same into steam, which flows upwardly and fills the entire upper part of the tube, thereby excluding air and preventing the hot wire from becoming discolored. As the wire passes below the side water inlet U, it encounters a body of water contained within the enlarged lower chamber R, and is rapidly cooled thereby below the discoloration temperature, so that when it emerges through the bottom plugs, the wire will be bright-annealed. The wire may then be passed around a lower electrical contact pulley and led to a spooling machine or other suitable equipment (not shown).

Modification of Fig. I

In some instances, as when drawing very fine wire, I have found that there is not sumcient heat in the wire to flash the water into steam, and for this reason an auxiliary supply of steam is necessary.

Thus, in the form shown in Fig. 4, the tube I, which in this instance has a large uniform bore throughout its length, is provided with a side pipe 3 near its upper end, which serves to provide sufi'icient additional steam to prevent the highly heated portions of the wire from being discolored. Below the side pipe 3, the tube i is also provided with a waterinlet pipe 4 which has an upwardly extending overflow 5, similar to the form shown in Fig. 3. v

The upper and lower ends of the tube I are preferably restricted by the plugs 6 and i, each of which has a contracted funnel-shaped opening extending therethrough.

Modification of Figs. 5, '6 and 7 In the modified form of the invention illustrated in Figs. 5-7, the construction is identical with that shown in Fig. 3, except that the tube is made of an outer jacket 8 and an inner pipe 9, which is relatively twistable. The inner member 9 is provided with an upper restricted passage I and a lower enlarged chamber ll. Provision is also made of a water inlet pipe l2 having a leveldetermining overflow I 3, said pipe I2 being screwed into a threaded opening in the outer jacket 8.

In order to permit the wire to be inserted laterally into the tube without the necessity 'of threading it, the outer jacket 2} and the inner pipe 9 are both provided with vertical slots l4 and I respectively, extending throughout their entire lengths. By rotating the inner pipe 9 within the outer jacket 8, the slots l4 and I5 may be brought into alignment as shown in Fig. 6, allowing for the insertion or removal of the intermediate portion of the wire. When the inner member 9 is again rotated to bring the slots l4 and it out of alignment, the tube will assume the condition shown in Fig. '7, and will be ready for operation.

Modification of Figs. 8, 9 and 10 Fig. 4;, except that it is formed of concentric cylindrical sections with slots which may be brought into alignment to permit the lateral insertion of the wire. The bore Ha is of uniform diameter throughout the tube, and has a water inlet l2 and overflow It as before. Vertical slots I4 and W are also employed as in Fig. 5, and provision is made of an auxiliary steam pipe l6 as in Fig. 4.

While there have been disclosed in this-specification several forms in which the invention may be embodied, it is to be understood that these forms are shown for the purpose of illustration only, and that the invention is not to be limited to the specific disclosures but may be modified and embodied in various other forms without departing from its spirit. In short, the invention includes all the modifications and embodiments coming within the scope of the following claims.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In an annealing apparatus for a rapidly moving vertical hot wire, a tube surrounding said wire, said tube having a relatively small bore at its upper portion and a relatively large bore at its lower portion, means to continuously pass cool ing water through the lower large bore of said tube, and means to cause the Water level to extend a constant distance up into the upper small ,bore of said tube.

2. In an apparatus for bright annealing a wire which is rapidly moved in a downward direction,

spaced electrical contact points engaged by said wire and which areadapted to supply an electric current to said wire and to heat the same, a small diameter, elongated, insulated tube surrounding the highly heated portions of said wire, a water inlet communicating with said tube intermediate the ends thereof, means for maintaining the water in said tube at a constant level above the water inlet and substantially quiescent so that it is adapted to become highly heated and vaporized into steam for protecting said wire against oxidation, the water below said inlet being continuously passed out of the lower end of said tube and adapted to remain at a comparatively low temperature for cooling said wire below the oxidizing temperature thereof.

3. In an apparatus for bright annealing a wire which is rapidly moved in a downward direction, spaced electrical contact points engaged by said Wire and which are adapted to supply an electric current to said wire and to heat the same, a small diameter, elongated, insulated tube surrounding the highly heated portions of said wire, a water inlet communicating with said tube intermediate the ends thereof, means for maintaining the water in said tube at a constant level above the water inlet and substantially quiescent so that it is adapted to become highly heated and vaporized into steam for protecting said wire against oxidation, the water below said inlet being continuously passed out of the lower end of said tube and remaining at a comparatively low temperature for cooling said wire below the oxidizing temperature thereof, and a supplemental steam supply for the upper end of said tube.

JOHN COOK. 

